LOS ANGELES (AP) — Motel 6 has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by Los Angeles that alleged one of the chain's locations was a base for human traffickers, drug dealers and gang members, prosecutors said.Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the money will be used to help deter human trafficking.The city in November sued the managers of a motel in the Sylmar neighborhood and G6 Hospitality Property LLC, which operates the Motel 6 chain, seeking to quell "unrelenting crime and nuisance activity."Los Angeles police had made more than 60 arrests at the location since 2013 for prostitution, battery, firearms possession and drug-related charges, authorities said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Crews contending with triple-digit temperatures slowed the spread of an aggressive wildfire that destroyed dozens of homes in a rural area of California near Yosemite National Park, officials said Sunday.The blaze burning for a week has scorched just over 118 square miles (305 square kilometers) of dense brush and dead trees in the Sierra Nevada foothills.Nearly 4,500 firefighters fought the blaze using air tankers and fleets of helicopters and bulldozers.Valdez, 60, and his wife had 20 minutes to grab a few photographs, bills and some family Bibles before they fled the encroaching flames.

LOS ANGELES — Authorities say an explosion left a home in Los Angeles severely damaged. It happened around 3 p.m. Wednesday in Canoga Park and scattered wood, clothing and other debris in the backyard pool and on neighboring homes. The Los Angeles Fire Department says no one was injured.